Report: Hulu breaks 450K live TV members mark

The streaming service Hulu has signed up about 450,000 live TV subscribers since it launched back in May 2017, according to unnamed sources reported by CNBC.

The $39.99 a month live service from Hulu trails DirecTV Now, which said last month it had reached 1 million subscribers, and Sling TV, which research firm comScore estimated in June of last year has more than 2 million. Sling TV does not officially reveal subscriber numbers.

Hulu operates a non-live TV, which competes with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video and costs $8 a month for an online library of TV shows and movies. Hulu announced earlier this month that it has more than 17 million paying customers spread across both its on-demand and live TV services. Hulu Live also includes Hulu’s on-demand product as well.

While these subscriber numbers look strong and they are growing, they may struggle to substantially grow their customer base because canceling is so easy and the value proposition compared with video on demand isn’t very good, according to Rich Greenfield, an analyst at BTIG.

Hulu, Hulu Live TV, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Sling TV are all services available through their associated apps on the Apple TV App Store.

About the Author

Brad Gibson Brad is co-founder and editor-in-chief of BESTAppleTV.com. He has been a technology reporter since the late 1980s having previously worked for MacUser, MacFormat, and iCreate magazines, as well as MacNN.com, MacObserver.com, MacCentral.com, MacMinute.com, and Macworld.com. He hosted and produced the MacFormat This Week podcast for three years. He was also a reporter, editor, and producer for the Associated Press and United Press International.